LA Blogger Disses Capitals' Franchise

Obama, Caps fans want YOU!

This is bulletin board material, Caps fans.

Seems like a blogger for the L.A. Times doesn't think much of your successful hockey team.

Johanna Neuman, a "veteran Washington correspondent" for the Los Angeles Times (they still have those at out-of-town newspapers these days?) dished a pretty good diss on the Caps in a recent blog entry. She made her jab while discussing President Barack Obama's possibility of attending Tuesday night's Game 7.

A local sports team known as the Washington Capitals has managed to force the first-round National Hockey League playoff series to a seventh and final game.

To most Washingtonians, this is something of a yawn. This is a Redskins town of football nuts, a metropolitan area of Wizard basketball fanatics. Even the Nationals, worst team in baseball, have a loyal fan base. Also it's 90 degrees here. Hockey is a winter sport, played on ice.

Wow, there are so many things wrong here. Where to start...

First, she calls the Caps "a local sports team known as the Washington Capitals." It's not like the Caps are a bush-league arena football team. They've, you know, been around a few years. They're one of the best teams in the NHL. Oh yeah, they also have the most exciting hockey player ... in the world.

Next, with the Redskins awful on-field performances, the Wizards' season to forget and the Nationals lack of baseball skills, this town is in desperate need of some new sports heroes. The Caps, dear Johanna, fit the bill, and are starting to be embraced by this once hockey-shunning town.

While the Caps might not have been a blip on Washington's radar during the Reagan Administration, times have changed. The Caps are front and center, and are inviting everyone onto the bandwagon -- even President Obama.

Should Obama attend a Caps game? Absolutely. Owner Ted Leonsis has already invited him on several occasions to join him in the owner's box for a game. But it seems Johanna has a problem with this idea, as well.

But if Leonsis thinks an owner's box will lure Obama, he hasn't been paying attention. This a new-generation Democrat.

Unlike President Bush, the security-obsessed president who regularly did the luxury-box thing, Obama is a guy who likes to mix it up, a politician who delighted Wizards regulars recently when he went to a Bulls game -- and sat in the stands with other fans.

Well, it's true Obama did sit in the "stands," but he sat courtside -- the best seats in the house. Basketball games aren't as good if you're sitting up high in a suite. You want to be courtside to see all the action. But hockey games can be different. Sit in the front row and you may not see all the action at the other end. A view from above is better in a lot of ways. You can see the whole ice and watch as plays develop.

And besides, would we really need to start a national controversy if Rangers coach John Tortorella squirted the president with a water bottle?

Contact Us